578 



NA TURE 



[May 27, 1909 



Erebus, like Stromboli in the Mediterranean, formed a 

 good barometer, for as the mercury fell in the barometers 

 of the expedition so did the steam cloud over Erebus rise 

 higher and higher. Nearly all the principal steam erup- 

 tions took place when the barometer was at its lowest. 



We have to acknowledge the receipt of vol. v., part ii., 

 of the Bolelim do Miiseu Goeldi {Museu Paraense), the 

 greater portion of which is devoted to botanical subjects, 

 although there is one paper, by Dr. Emilia Snethlage, on 

 new Amazonian birds in the collection of the museum, and 

 a second by the same author on certain new fishes from 

 the Amazon and its tributaries, recently described by Dr. 

 Steindachner. 



The categories of variation form the subject of (he first 

 and longer article, by Prof. S. J. Holmes, in the May 

 number of the American Naitiralist. After directing special 

 attention to mutations, the author concludes as follows : — 

 " If sudden mutations have been a not uncommon source 

 of varieties of domesticated animals and cultivated plants, 

 it does not follow that the selection of comparatively small 

 variations has not been the predominant method of species- 

 forming in a state of nature. After fifty years from the 

 publication of Darwin's ' Origin of Species ' we are still 

 debating, and more lively than ever, the central problem 

 of that epoch-making book ; but it is not improbable the 

 views of its sagacious author will prove more nearly correct 

 than those of most of his modern critics." 



In describing, under the name of Isocrinus hiiighti, a 

 new crinoid from the Upper Jurassic of Wyoming, we 

 are glad to see that Mr. F. Springer, in No. 1664 of the 

 Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum (vol. xxxvi., 

 pp. 179-99), decides not to replace the well-known name 

 Encrinus liliiformis or to transfer it to another species, 

 although, according to strict interpretation of rules, there 

 may be grounds for so doing. " I shall maintain," he 

 ■writes, " that, irrespective of the merits of their original 

 titles to priority, the names of Encrinus and Millericrinus 

 have become valid simply by the lapse of time, by long 

 usage in the sense in which they are now generally under- 

 stood ; and that by reason of universal acquiescence in 

 such use for nearly a century, zoologists are now estopped 

 from disputing them." These are golden words, and it is 

 most satisfactory to find that Mr. Boulenger's revolt 

 against the priority-fetish has spread to America, where 

 the fetish is most highly worshipped. We trust the revolt 

 will continue to spread. 



Brown-be.vr hunting in Alaska forms the subject of a 

 very fully illustrated article,, by Mr. G. Mixter, in the 

 April number of the National Geographic Magazine, the 

 article concluding with an extract of a report on these 

 bears by Mr. W. H. Osgood. After mentioning that 

 Alaska is unrivalled in regard to the number and variety 

 of its bears, and that the brown bears are the largest in 

 the world, with the exception of the Polar species and 

 their own relations in Kamchatka, the latter author con- 

 siders that the days of these bears are numbered, and 

 that these animals will ere long be exterminated except 

 in the more remote districts. The brown bears vary 

 greatly in colour, ranging from dark seal-brown to buffish- 

 brown, with the legs and under-parts generally darker 

 than the back. Although the ends of the hairs are often 

 paler than the bases, the silver-tipped fur of the grislies 

 is never seen, while the front claws are shorter, thicker, 

 and more sharply curved than those of the latter. 



TiiE osteology and affinities of the Jurassic .American 

 iguanodont reptiles of the genus Camptosaurus form the 

 NO. 2065, VOL. 80] 



subject of a long paper, by Mr. C. W. Gilmore, published 

 as No. 1666 of the Proceedings of the U.S. National 

 Museum (vol. xxxvi., pp. 197-332). As the result of addi- 

 tional materials, the author is enabled to give a new 

 definition of the genus, while special attention is also 

 directed to the three English reptiles which have been 

 assigned to the genus by Mr. Lydekker. All three are 

 admittedly very nearly allied to the American genus, and 

 the author at present sees no reason for separating the 

 Kimeridgian C. preslwichi, although in certain points it 

 comes closer to Iguanodon than to the typical Campto- 

 saurus. On the other hand, the femur from the Oxfordian 

 on which C. Icedsi was founded appears to come nearer 

 to the corresponding bone of the American Dryosaurus, 

 and the species may therefore be distinct from Campto- 

 saurus, the same remark applying to the still more 

 imperfectly known C. vahicnsis of the Wcaldcn of the 

 Isle of Wight. 



We have been favoured with parts of the Journal 

 botaniqiie de la Sociite imperiale des Naluralistes of, St. 

 Petersburg (Nos. 2 to 6, igo8). Papers on the algae of 

 the Black Sea are contributed .by Mr. K. N. von Decken- 

 bach and Mr. N. N. Woronichin. The former provides 

 new records for species and localities ; the latter, a more 

 extensive paper, deals with the identification of green algie 

 from several collections, and supplies a list of nearly fifty 

 species, but none of them is endemic. Two articles on 

 the distribution of plants are contributed, the one, by Mr. 

 J. Perfiliew, on the government of Wologda, the other, 

 by Miss H. Poplavska, on the government of Pskov. A 

 genus, Luenovia. is created by Mr. W. Sukatscheff for a 

 new blue-green alga under the order Hormogoneae. 



Additional notes on the economic aspects of the oil 

 palm, Elaeis guineetisis, are given in the current issue 

 (No. 4) of the Ke^o Bulletin, compiled from information 

 supplied by officers in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Gambia, 

 and the Gold Coast. The chief factors affecting habitat 

 are a rainfall of more than 70 inches and a soil rich in 

 humus but well drained. Plantations are only occasion- 

 ally met with, as among the Krobos of the Gold Coast, 

 but there is no diflicully in raising young plants. The 

 method of tapping the palms for " wine," which tends to 

 the destruction of numbers of trees, is described. At the 

 present time, and until transport facilities are improved 

 the sources of supply are more than adequate. 



Prof. C. F. Chamberlain has supplemented his paper on 

 the female gamctophyte of the cycad Dioon edule by an 

 account, published in the Botanical Gazette (March), of 

 spermatogenesis in the same plant. The staminate cones 

 measure 10 cm. to 20 cm. in length; the numerous sporo- 

 phylls bear about 250 sporangia", and the average output 

 of a sporangium is placed at 30,000 spores. One persistent 

 prothallial cell is developed. The sperms, produced in 

 pairs in a mother-cell, are only slightly smaller than the 

 sperms of Zamia, and, like them, are just visible to the 

 naked eye, as they measure about i /40-inch. The move- 

 ment of cilia is accompanied by pulsating and amoeboid 

 movements. Two blepharoplasts are formed which eventu- 

 ally break up into granules from which the spiral ciliated 

 band of the sperm is developed. 



An account of trees on the Dawyck estate, in Peebles, 

 by Mr. W. B. Gourlay, is published in the latest number 

 (vol. xxiii., part iv.) of the Transactions and Proceedings 

 of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, in which it is 

 stated that larches were planted on this estate in 1725, 

 or thirteen years before the first introduction to Dunkeld ; 

 the survivors are much weather-beaten, but the estate lies 



